Babu, who has set up Tamil Nadu’s first donkey farm near Tirunelveli, is supplying the animal’s milk to a cosmetic products firm in Bengaluru
U. Babu of Vannarpet, a school dropout, has established Tamil Nadu’s first donkey farm near here, and has become a young successful entrepreneur selling a litre of donkey milk for a whopping ₹7,000 to a Bengaluru-based firm manufacturing a range of cosmetic products with it, a report in The Hindu says
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After passing his 11th standard, Babu decided to give up studies and started working for a pharma products distribution company that ultimately led him to the company manufacturing 28 unisex cosmetic products with donkey’s milk.
They were looking for a credible source to supply 1,000 litres of donkey milk every month. Babu soon realised that Tamil Nadu had less than 2,000 donkeys and each female could yield only 350 ml a day and only for a period of 6 months.
It was then that he decided to start his own ‘donkey farm’. The response from his family was negative. Even when he tried to explain about the demand for donkey milk, none of them, including his wife, was ready to listen.
“But, I persisted in my efforts. I could identify a few people from Vriddhachalam district who wander all over to sell 10 ml of donkey milk for ₹50 to the rural folk who believe this milk has anti-ageing elements and tremendously strengthens their toddlers’ immune system”.
He adds: “I have successfully brought a family with 5 donkeys from Poovanur near Padaalam to my farm to take care of all 100 donkeys on my farm, ‘Donkey Palace’, created on 17 acres of land taken on lease from a friend,” says Babu.
He has Halari donkeys of Gujarat and Kathiawadi of Maharashtra besides the country variety of Tamil Nadu. “While the country variety animal costs about ₹40,000, it is ₹1 lakh in the case of Halaris which give 1 litre milk a day,” he says.
The fodder for the animals like ragi, pearl millet etc. is raised on 12 acres as the farm has come up on the remaining 5 acres at Mukkoodal near here.
“But, I persisted in my efforts. I could identify a few people from Vriddhachalam district who wander all over to sell 10 ml of donkey milk for ₹50 to the rural folk who believe this milk has anti-ageing elements and tremendously strengthens their toddlers’ immune system”.
The ‘Poovanur family’ with T. Govindan and his son-in-law A. Karuppaiah now feed, bathe and milk the animals besides taking care of the donkeys in case of ailments mostly caused by cold. “We isolate the donkeys that are suffering from a cold,” he says showing the animals kept in a separate enclosure.
One of the members of this family, G. Santhosh, is doing his final year in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in a college at Kovilpalayam near Coimbatore, and is also taking care of the donkeys like others.
“I don’t want to join any company… I want to be part of this venture by taking care of the marketing division as suggested by Mr. Babu,” he says.
The donkey milk with more than 99% TFM (Total Fatty Matter) is refrigerated at the farm and sent to Bengaluru to make the cosmetics including bathing soaps, lotions for skin and hair care, cream etc. While a 130 gram hand-made soap with donkey milk costs ₹ 799 on e-commerce platforms, it costs USD 16.77 (₹1,299) in the US.
Babu says “we’re working on entering the Europe market”. An Indian billionaire’s retail venture is holding talks for marketing these cosmetic products as he is now one of the partners of the Bengaluru-based cosmetic manufacturer.
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